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As I mentioned in my review of The Hunger Games (2012), I told my friend that I would see The Hunger Games: Catching Fire with him, even though I was not very interested in either of the films. I’m not going to watch a sequel to a film without first watching the original, so I watched The Hunger Gamesat home before going out to the theatre. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed The Hunger Games, and this made me excited to see the sequel. I would certainly not recommend watching The Hunger Games: Catching Fire without first watching The Hunger Games. It is pretty much essential to watch the movies in order.

I would advise against reading the rest of this review if you have not yet seen The Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire picks up where the first film left off. Through an act of defiance, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) were the winners of the 74th annual Hunger Games. Their public defiance was enough for the government to want to make an example out of them by punishing them in hopes of preventing a revolution.

Like most sequels, I expected this movie to be a step down from the first film. My expectations were wrong once again. It’s a rare thing that a sequel is better than its predecessor, but this is exactly the case with The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. It’s as if the filmmakers ironed out all of the kinks from the first movie in order to make the sequel.

Everything that I liked and disliked about The Hunger Gameswas improved upon in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. It was another welcomed surprise. The acting was more passionate, the special effects were sharper, the story was more interesting, and the quality of the film as a whole was just plain better.

Fans of The Hunger Gameswill undoubtedly like The Hunger Games: Catching Fire even more. The film is a higher caliber and therefore delivers a stronger potency.

I’m not usually the type of guy to rush out and see a movie like The Hunger Games in theatres. I guess that is why I had not seen the film, until now. I probably would have put off seeing this movie even longer, but since a friend of mine wanted to see the The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) in theatres, I thought it best that I see the films in order.

People have raved about this movie, but it just wasn’t a must-see for me, even though, for the most part, it has a very solid cast. I don’t know if it is the PG-13 rating or what, but it just appeared to me like it would be a teenie-bopper film of sorts.

The movie takes place in the future where a society is split up into twelve districts. Once a year a lottery takes place in order to select a young man and a young woman from each of the twelve districts to take part in a televised battle to the death called The Hunger Games. The latest Hunger Games gets its first volunteer, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence). Katniss volunteers in order to protect her younger sister from almost certain death. Now, Katniss is facing the same odds.

I’m not sure that I buy into the concept of a society that would force a few of its residents to battle in a fight to the death. The idea was a little bit of a stretch. However, it did remind me a little bit of gladiators being forced to fight in an arena. It’s a backwards advanced warped society that would be a sick world to live in. Maybe I just hope that it could never get that bad, but given the world that we live in, maybe I’m just in denial. After all, if the holocaust can happen, maybe something like this could too. A movie like this that takes place in the future can get away with a concept like this one, because nobody knows what the future holds.

The film was a cross between The Most Dangerous Game (1932), Death Race (2008), and Gladiator (2000).

The Hunger Games was certainly better than I anticipated it would be. The big name actors in the movie all played their parts well. However, it was ultimately Jennifer Lawrence’s film. It was an intensely engaging, heartfelt movie with lots of cool visuals and a good soundtrack.

At times, the graphics were a bit overdone and almost too colorful. Some of the costumes were far out. The technology in the film seemed a little too advanced for a poor society. All of these things temporarily took away from the story along with a touch of lower quality acting from the lesser known supporting cast members.

Overall, The Hunger Games was a big surprise to me. It far exceeded my expectations and I wish I had given it a chance sooner, because I didn’t give it the credit that it deserves.

2013 is not over yet, but the last couple months of the year always seems to have a ton of new releases that get crammed in just in time to be considered for the current year’s Academy Awards.

We are in the midst of the beginning of the end of the year, so I thought it would be fitting to list all of the best movies that have been released so far this year. I will list what I think are the best movies so far this year, and the rest of my list will consist of other great movies that did not quite make the cut. The movies that did not make the cut were still pretty awesome and worth seeing.

Click on each movie for my full review, rating, trailer, and poster artwork for that film.

Because the year is not over yet, I will continue to add to this list. That is of course, if I see a movie that is good enough to be on it. Considering the list of movies that are set to release before the end of the year, I’m sure that I will have no problem adding to this list. I hope that you will come back to www.brockingmovies.com to see any additions to the list.